This impressive building opposite Our Lady and St. John’s Roman Catholic Church on High Lane, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester has a fascinating history.
.jpeg)
I previous believed it was built as an Art School in 1896 by Thomas E. Mostyn; now, however, having conducted more research I found it dates from 1888-9 and was constructed by Lachlan Mc Lachlan (1).
He had recently become the tenant of the adjacent Oban House, 2, Manchester Road, and the new building was to serve as his photographer’s studio, only for him to die on 16th June 1891. It now houses a Buddhist Meditation Centre and “The World Peace Cafe” In the interim it has had a wide variety of uses. Its use as an art school and from 1904 until 1909 as Chorlton-cum-Hardy's first municipal school run by the Manchester Corporation Education Department were covered in the story referenced above. (2)
The 1911 census records it as the residence of a police constable, John Cannon Blenkharn, his wife Bertha Mary (née Faulkner) and three young children.
P.C. Blenkharn was born on 17th November 1881 in the small Westmorland village, Grayrigg where his father and grandfather (both also Johns) were farmers. His mother died in childbirth when John was born; his second name being given in remembrance of her, being her maiden name. His father remarried a Jane Robinson when John was 5 years old. Originally following his forebear's occupation on the land, in 1903 he moved South and on 4th February joined the Manchester City Police Force. Later in 1903 he returned to Westmorland to marry Bertha Mary Faulkner
His residence in this large house on High Lane with its 7 rooms is intriguing as 2 years previously the 1909 Slater’s Directory of Manchester records him at the much smaller 9, Kathleen Grove, Rusholme, Manchester. It is possible he was living there in the capacity of a caretaker while the owner found a new tenant/purchaser. In any case by 1916 the Blenkharns had moved out to 1, Higson Avenue off Beech Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy. (3)
Later in his career in the police force John achieved the rank of Detective Sergeant. In this capacity he was involved in a desperately sad case in 1931 which was a sensation in Manchester at the time. On the morning of Wednesday 23rd September in the company of two police superintendents he witnessed the discovery of an 8-year-old child's body in the Victoria Park district of Rusholme, Manchester.
Later that day he detained a man, George Alfred Rice, at his lodgings on nearby Dickenson Road. After further enquiries Mr. Rice was subsequently charged the following day with the murder of Constance Inman. After a two-day trial at Manchester Assizes George Alfred Rice was found guilty of the girl’s murder and sentenced to death on Tuesday 15th December 1931. An appeal against his conviction and sentence was lodged at which in mitigation it was stated that Rice, an unmarried, unemployed hotel porter, was of limited mental capacity, was illiterate and only had one eye.
A consequence of this appeal meant the initial date for his execution, 4th January 1932, was postponed. The appeal was dismissed on 18th January and after a further plea to the Home Secretary of the day (Sir Herbert Samuel) was also unsuccessful; George Alfred Rice was executed at Strangeways prison, Manchester on the morning of Wednesday 3rd February 1932.
John Blenkharn retired as a Detective Sergeant. The 1939 Register shows him having made the short move to 2, Belgrave Road (now Belwood Road) also in Chorlton-cum-Hardy.
It also reveals that his seventh child was born in 1922. He died on 26th March 1966 just 3 months after his wife, Bertha Mary who died on Boxing Day 1965.
The next occupant of 76, High Lane after P.C. Blenkharn’s departure was Charles Ireland who was a photographer with a studio at 25, Lower Mosley Street, and others elsewhere in Manchester. He is shown as renting a studio at the property in the Manchester rate books of 1916. By 1921 he was listed as the owner of the property. The photography business he inherited from his father, Edward was obviously a hugely profitable one as together with the house on High Lane by 1930 he also owned properties on St. Clement’s Road and Whitelow Road, both in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester as well as the studio on Lower Mosley Street of which his late father, Edward had acquired the title. Before moving to High Lane Charles lived in the family home “Highfield” 11, Edge Lane, Chorlton-cum-Hardy prior to which the 1902 electoral roll records him at 5, Wilbraham Road also in Chorlton-cum-Hardy.
Charles Ireland died at the Manchester Royal Infirmary on 21st May 1930 and is buried in the family grave (U 1587) in the consecrated (i.e. Church of England) section of Southern Cemetery, Manchester.
.jpeg)
There is much more detail of Charles ‘s life and work on this blog by both Andrew Simpson and Eric Krieger.
With the death of her husband his widow, Edith May (née Hindley) (4) opted to move to another of the family’s houses on St. Clement’s and let out 76, High Lane. Her tenant from at least 1933 was Mrs. Edna Elizabeth Walls who used the building as a dancing school, running the business, “Apryl’s Danse-Salon” under her maiden name of Allan. Edna Elizabeth Allan was born in Stretford, Lancashire on 17th July 1907. In 1921 she was living at 880 Chester Road, Gorse Hill, Stretford where her father, Norman Currie Allan, had a boot repair shop. Prior to setting up in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, it appears that “Apryl” worked for the Cadman School (of dance), Stretford.
Edna married Alexander Wilson Walls during the June quarter of 1933 in the South Manchester registration district. How long Edna ran the Salon in High Lane is unclear as her and Alexander moved to Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire where their first child, a daughter, was born in the March quarter of 1936. There is some evidence the business continued under the same trading name but with a different proprietor. The 1936 rate book shows Edna’s name crossed through and James Howley entered above it. However, The Manchester Evening News on 19th January 1937 included an item detailing an event at the salon the following day and the Manchester Directory of 1938 also has Apryl’s Dance Salon at 76, High Lane.
Whatever, the 1939 Register records the house as an empty property. The rate book of 1941 is very informative but as is often the case raises as many questions as it provides answers! Originally the occupier is shown as Winifred Driver, but her name was then crossed through as was the property’s use as a Dancing School. The added notes reveal more of the story; above the crossed through Dancing School the word “Billets” was added and in the rate assessment section was written “Exempt Crown Property”. Further intrigue originates from the entry in the “Arrears from previous years” column which shows a W. Driver owing £8 - 0s – 9d and an M. Jones with a debt of £20 - 11s –6d.
Mrs. Ireland was listed as the owner although her name was also crossed out but then added again later. In the 1939 Register she is recorded at 23, St. Clement’s Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy with her 4 children. (5) She died on 24th September 1948 leaving an estate of £4,003 -13s- 2d and was buried alongside her husband.
Who was billeted in the house, and who Winifred Driver and “M. Jones” were I have yet to discover.
Now in reaching 1945 is a convenient point to pause the story of 76 High Lane. (For a house with such a rich vein of history it is a shame it appears to have never been given an individual name) There is more to reveal however, from its post-war story including its use as a music school; the substance of my friend’s remark which prompted this story.
Not to worry all will be revealed in a follow-up piece – WATCH THIS SPACE!
Pictures: - All from the collection of Tony Goulding
Notes: -
1) The Schools of High Lane. https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/the-schools-of-high-lane-another-from.html
2) Lachlan McLachlan was a prominent Manchester photographer and engraver of some fame and notoriety. He was born in Oban, Argyllshire, Scotland in 1824 but by 1849 was in Manchester where, in the December quarter, he married Elizabeth Murgatroyd, a Yorkshire girl from York, at the recently created Manchester Cathedral. Working initially as a cabinet maker he later turned his hobby of photography into a business. His “masterpiece” which took years in the making was “The Royal Family at Windsor” which became the subject of prolonged and very expensive litigation. He was also an advocate for reform of the Lunacy Laws after his friend Alice Hadfield Petschler had been forcibly and unfairly committed to an asylum in Macclesfield, Cheshire. Mrs. Petschler was a fellow photographer and the widow of Helmuth, a German from Mecklenburg, a pioneering photographer who prior to his failing health had a studio on Market Street, Manchester. Coincidentally, her case was the subject of a recent Chorlton Good Neighbours history talk I attended earlier this year given by the historian Joanna Williams.
3) Wonderfully these dry records also reveal the intimate detail that P.C. Blenkharn also kept an allotment in the gardens at the end of Cleveleys Avenue, off Sandy Lane, Chorlton-cum-Hardy.
4) The wedding of Charles Ireland and Edith May Hindley took place in the September quarter of 1913 in St. George’s Church, Manchester
No comments:
Post a Comment